I decided to do something a little different with the blog this week. I wanted to do spotlights on one novel a week. These novels will either be books I'm currently reading or books I've read.
I've read a lot of books. I'm currently reading a lot of books. So, I figured I'll have a lot of book reviewing content to give you all over the coming weeks.
This week, we'll look at a book I found randomly on a BookBub add.
Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch
Sometimes in the near future, humans have decided to make fellow humans pets. These pets grow up in a special school that trains them to be perfectly beautiful trophies for their owners. They don't know real emotions, and they can't read. They're essentially more intelligent and talented dogs. When a pet named Ella is bought by a wealthy politician, she learns not only her place in life, but that she can have real feelings.
When I read the premise of this book, my brain went two ways. I thought this book could either be really screwed up, or it could shed some light on the human psyche.
This book really did neither, but it ended up being enjoyable, if not cliche.
Instead of going in depth into the inner workings of the pet culture, this book focused around one pet who, surprise, falls in love with someone she shouldn't. Sure, there's a little socioeconomic commentary, but really, this is just a love story with a new premise.
Like I said, I enjoyed the book, but I don't know if I'll read the next two in the series. I felt like a lot of the tropes in the book were so overdone that I don't need to read the rest of the series to figure out what happens.
The new idea of humans being pets wasn't enough to make Perfected stand out amongst the slew of YA romances, but it is enough to spend a few bucks on a new author for a fast and mostly enjoyable read.
3.5/5 stars
Sarah Lelonek